


That Tuesday Morning

by yuletide_archivist



Category: 30 Rock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-16
Updated: 2007-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 08:39:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1641992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story by ciachick711</p><p>Don't you know any other writers? I'm sure they would be glad to sleep with one of their own kind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Tuesday Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Written for paperbackmummy

 

 

That Tuesday Morning

Liz doesn't even get to her office before she's summoned upstairs by Jack.

"Ah, good morning, Lemon."

She squints at him and sinks down onto one of the couches. "I haven't even had any coffee yet."

"There are probably 50 Starbucks in between your apartment and here. You couldn't stop on your way in?"

"Never mind. What did you want?"

"I just wanted to check in with you. I'm going to be in meetings all day, so I won't--"

"How is that different than any other day? We'll be fine without you for eight hours."  
She starts to get up to leave, but he barrages on with his questions that always seem to have nothing to do with anything.

"Lemon, have you even been on a date since Floyd?"

"You've asked me this before, Jack."

"Yes, and you always seem to avoid the answer. The boy toy doesn't count. Don't you know any other writers? I'm sure they would be glad to sleep with one of their own kind."

"Nice. Maybe you should start a dating service."

"You didn't answer the question."

"What? Oh. Yes, I know other writers. They're all 40 and married and look like Pete."

"Pete's quite a handsome guy if I do say so. He has this--"

"Don't finish that sentence, please. And why do you care so much anyway?"

"I just want to see you happy."

Liz crosses her arms. She can see right through him. "Your meetings today? There's someone you want to introduce me to."

"Not exactly. What if someone from your past was to suddenly show up, totally changed, and want to get back together with you? What would you say?"

"Depends who it was and how he changed." She shrugs. "Have fun in your meetings. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Lemon...."

"I haven't had any coffee yet. I'm not going to stay here and play mind games with you."

By the time she gets back downstairs, her staff is there, even Frank. She barely recognizes the fact they're speaking, because she feels like she's having an out of body experience, running this low on caffeine. "Cerie," she thinks she says out loud and she hears some sort of muffled response. "Can you get me some..."

"Oh boy," Pete hovers over her. Where the hell is she? "Caffeine underdose. You'll be okay in a few minutes. We stole some of Twofer's espresso."

"Am I on the floor?" She frowns, sitting up as Pete hands over the pint sized cup. "Oh thank God." She's reminded that she really doesn't like espresso, but she's just grateful to feel like an actual person. In thirty minutes, she's feeling much better, and actually starts listening to everyone's arguments from her perch on the floor.

"Whatever. Conan has much more variety than The Daily Show."

"But you can't deny that Daily Show writers are consistently funnier. What do the Conan writers work on except for those ten minutes of dialogue? The Daily Show has to come up with twenty minutes of funny."

"I think Colbert's seriously underrated when it comes to writing. I mean, all that presidential stuff? That was genius."

When Liz manages to scrape herself off the floor, she notices that the white board has names of writers from various shows listed on it. "Did I miss something?" She takes a chair next to Pete. "Are we hiring someone new?"

Immediately after she says this, she notices the heading on the whiteboard: Dates for Liz. "Are you kidding me?" She cries, dropping her head against the table.. "What is with everybody today? It's not like it's Valentine's or anything. I'm fine!"

"You do know who Jack is meeting with today, right?" Twofer asks.

Liz looks around the table. Everyone else seems to know. "Um," is all she can manage.

"Floyd's here," Pete says gently.

"Blergh."

She's standing in line at her favorite sandwich place when someone joins the line a few people behind her. She can hear him making various excuses about needing to change his order. She can't really ignore him when he's standing right next to her, pretending to tell her his sandwich order.

"Save it," she says, turning to look at him. "I know you're a ham on wheat kind of guy."

He looks nice. He's wearing a navy suit with a red tie, his hair a little mussed by the wind. "So how are you?" A smile pulls at his mouth, but disappears just as quickly.

Liz gives him a sidelong glance. "I appreciate the effort, but don't give me that crap. Jack told you everything."

"No, he really didn't say much."

"Wow. I've never known Jack to respect anyone's feelings before."

"I think he likes you."

"Yeah," Liz replies, thinking of how after Floyd left, Jack sometimes caught her crying in her office. "I know. How's Cleveland?"

"It's okay."

"Just okay? What kind of lawyering are you doing there?"

"Business law, mostly. One of our clients is the Indians, though, so we got to go to a couple games, sit in the boxes."

"Wow. What kind of food do they have?"

He's even more adorable when he smiles. "Oh, you would have been in heaven." She doesn't tell him about all the disastrous first dates people sent her on, because she was so upset about him. But when he mentions off hand that he hasn't dated much, she knows it's coming, the awkward question about whom she's seeing. Instead he says: "I'm thinking about coming back to New York."

"What? I thought you wanted...Cleveland."

"I think I just needed a break. Longer than a vacation, but shorter than...a lifetime."  
Liz has to stop him to order her sandwich.

"A sabbatical."

"Right."

"You didn't want anything, did you?" She points to the counter.

"You're changing the subject."

"Yeah, I am." She looks down when she smiles and takes a deep breath. "Wow. Okay. So you're really coming back?"

"Yeah, I am. That's why I was meeting with Jack. He's helping me get my old job back."  
"That makes sense."

"Liz, I-part of the reason, okay, 88% of the reason is because of you."

"Only 88 percent?" She takes her sandwich and tells the guy to keep the change. They step outside.

"Liz," he's serious. "I really missed you, after the phone thing didn't work out--"

"I know, I'm so sorry. I really--"

"No. We could have tried harder, that's all I kept thinking. And, I just wanted to be totally honest with you about it. So..."

"I'm really, really flattered. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't upset when you left. I was, honestly, a mess for about three months. Someone did all the writing for the show because it wasn't me. I cried at everything. My humidifier, the stupid Fourth of July, the newspaper, Marley and Me...everything. That's not what I do."

"Well, Marley and Me is a tearjerker."

"Yes, it is! Thank you! But honestly, I don't want to be the one that makes you move. I wouldn't feel right about it. I couldn't move to Cleveland, you shouldn't return the favor. Or the un-favor as the case may be." She takes a deep breath. "I should probably go. I mean, my staff is up there debating the merits of which writing staff I should date, Colbert or The Daily Show."

"Yeah, that's a tough call." He shoves his hands in his pockets and walks back across the street with her. "So what else happened while I was gone?"

"I bought a four thousand dollar hand napkin."

 

 

 


End file.
